New Orleans Bounce - 30 of His Best

Smiley Lewis (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

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• Audio CD
• ASIN: B0011MIPKS
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,560 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The First CDs To Hit The Market, February 25, 2011

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AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Orleans Bounce - 30 of His Best (Audio CD)

This compilation from Sequel Records of the U.K. dates from 1990 - the dawn of the CD age - and, with 30 tracks in excellentAAD sound reproduction, was miles ahead of anything we were getting at the time from the likes of Universal, MC, Sony and BMG who usually gave us 10 or 12 tracks, without any background details and charged an arm and leg for them. Here you get, in addition, four pages of liner notes written on April 6, 1990 by Clive Anderson, along with a complete discography of the contents.

In terms of promotion by Imperial records, Smiley Lewis played second fiddle to stablemate Fats Domino, one reason being public visibility. He was born in 1913, while Fats didn't come along until 1928 so, in the early 1950s when both began recording for Imperial, Smiley was already well into his 30s while Fats was just 22. Consequntly, while Fats would eventually rack up 57 R&B hit singles at Imperial, many of them major Pop cross-overs, Smiley managed just four, and none crossed over to the Pop charts. But they're all here, along with 3 of the B-sides.

His first came in September 1952 when The Bells Are Ringing peaked at # 10 R&B b/w Walkin' The Girl (the missing side) on Imperial 45-5194, and it would be three long years before anything he did charted again. That came in September 1955 when, with Huey (Piano) Smith at the keyboard, I Hear You Knockin' surged to # 2 R&B b/w Bumpity Bump on Imperial 5356. At the same time, Fats was taking All By Myself to # 1 R&B on Imperial 5357. A Dot cover by Gale Storm, meanwhile, hit the same position on the Pop charts and # 15 R&B.

The following April, he was back with One Night, which topped out at # 11 R&B b/w Ain't Gonna Do It on Imperial 5380. Two years later, in late 1958, an Elvis Presley cover would start its climb to # 4 Pop and # 10 R&B for RCA Victor. Smiley then had his final hit in June 1956 when Please Listen To Me rose to # 9 R&B b/w She's Got Me Hook, Line And Sinker on Imperial 5389. By this time he was 43 years old and not exactly the image desired by the young crowd really getting into R&R at that time.

And that's too bad because his music was every bit as appealing as that of Fats Domino. Indeed, just give a listen to Blue Monday, which he recorded and had released (Imperial 5268) in 1954, well before the monster version by Fats in late 1956 on Imperial 5407.

Strangely enough, Fats played piano on many of the cuts, as you will discover from the sessionography included, along with the likes of Herb Hardesty, Lee Allen and Clarence Hall (tenor sax), Joe Harris (alto sax), and Huey Smith (piano). Great New Orleans Bounce music.
Here are the tracks:

1) That Certain Door; 2) Bee's Boogie; 3) Oh Red!; 4) Gumbo Blues; 5) Ain't Gonna Do It; 6) It's So Peaceful; 7) Come On; 8) Queen Of Hearts; 9) Big Mamou; 10) Caldonia's Party; 11) The Bells Are Ringing; 12) Someday; 13) Jailbird; 14) Real Gone Lover; 15) I Hear You Knocking; 16) One Night; 17) Down The Road; 18) Shame, Shame, Shame; 19) She's Got Me, Hook Line And Sinker; 20) Tee Nah Nah; 21) Down Yonder (We Go Ballin'); 22) Lille Mae; 23) Dirty People; 24) Bad Luck Blues; 25) Blue Monday; 26) Bumpity Bump; 27) Rootin' N' Tootin'; 28) Please Listen To Me; 29) Playgirl; 30) Slide Me Down

Lewis, who was born Overton Amos Lemons on July 4, 1913, died of cancer on July 19, 1966. He was just 53.

A prime candidate for re-release.